Graduation Hat-trick for Tombouctou Mss Project

On 10 June 2011, researchers Shahid Mathee, Ebrahiem Moos and Saarah Jappie received postgraduate degrees from the University of Cape Town.

Shahid Mathee received a PhD in Historical Studies for his highly original thesis entitled “Timbuktu’s women and muftīs, 1907 – 1960: history through Timbuktu’s fatwās”, which uses fatawa as sources for the social history of Timbuktu in the colonial period.  Shahid is currently a lecturer in the Department of Religion Studies at the University of Johannesburg but he commutes to Cape Town where his family still resides.  He remains connected to the Project and will visit Timbuktu’s manuscript libraries looking at social practice during the colonial and pre-colonial eras.

Ebrahiem Moos and Saarah Jappie both received a Masters in Historical Studies.  Ebrahiem’s thesis looks at the role of miracles in one of the most important works of a renowned scholar of Timbuktu and is entitled “The Literary Works Of Shaykh Sīdī Al-Mukhtār Al-Kuntī (d. 1811): A Study Of The Concept And Role Of “Miracles” In Al-Minna Fī i’ tiqādAhl Al-Sunna.” He is currently exercising as Senior Imam at the Yusufeyyah Masjid in Wynberg and is a Lecturer and HOD in Arabic at IPSA (International Peace College of South Africa).  Ebrahiem continues to collaborate with the Project with translations and we hope he will further his studies in the future.

Saarah’s outstanding thesis which received a distinction is entitled “From Madrasah to Museum: A Biography of the Islamic Manuscripts of Cape Town”, and traces the history of the kietaabs of Cape Town from their original use in the 19th c. to their current role as heritage and identity objects. Saarah received a full scholarship to Princeton University to do a PhD in history but she remains connected to the Project on a sporadic basis.